Aircraft

A new material solutions program that offers an inventory of over 130 maintenance tools and ground support equipment to customers in Africa, Europe and the Middle East has been officially launched by Brazilian airframer Embraer.

Referred to as “Tool on Time (ToT)”, and revealed this week at the MRO USA 2008 conference and exhibition in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, the program “is a natural improvement of our spare parts pooling program strategy”, says Johann Bordais, aviation services sales and contracts senior manager for Embraer Aviation International (EAI).

The spare parts pool program provides replacement parts and eliminates the need for inventory investments, via an agreement in which the customer pays a given amount, based on the number of flight hours of the aircraft enrolled in the program. Embraer assumes the responsibility for maintaining a parts inventory at its distribution and service centers.

The objective of ToT is to complement this pool program by providing customers with all the materials they need to perform aircraft maintenance and repair, including equipment used for specific procedures, “thus avoiding additional investments in low-usage tools and reducing initial disbursements and maintenance costs”, says Embraer.

“Both programs are designed to reduce overhead investments in spare parts and ground support equipment and eliminate inventory management costs for the operators,” it adds.

Source: Air Transport Intelligence news